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Q Who (episode)
Q demonstrates the "inadequacy" of the Enterprise crew by hurling them into the path of a Borg ship. Summary .]] 's cutting beams slicing a hole in the ''Enterprise''-D's hull]] Picard is pulled far out into space by Q, into a shuttlecraft very far away from the ''Enterprise''-D. Picard initially refuses to listen to Q, but eventually is convinced to give him a full hearing and is returned to the Enterprise. Q expresses to some of the officers of the Enterprise his desire to join their crew, after being outcast from the Q Continuum. Picard is skeptical, and doesn't allow it. Q makes the argument that there are forces in the galaxy more powerful than they could imagine, but Picard insists that they'll be ready to meet it, as that's what they're trying to do. Q doesn't believe this, and sends them 7,000 light years into uncharted space. Guinan begs Picard to return to Federation space as quickly as possible, but he decides to explore the nearby J-25 system first. A check of the only class M planet in the system reveals that while there was once a civilisation there, it has been ripped away from the planet. A cube-shaped ship then approaches the Enterprise, and scans of the ship show nothing. Picard asks Guinan for her advice, and she reveals that the ship belongs to the Borg - a cybernetic race who were responsible for the near-extinction of Guinan's people. "Protect yourself, Captain," she advises, "or they'll destroy you." The Borg proceed to beam a drone into engineering, despite the fact that the shields are up. When the drone attempts to tamper with the ship, Picard orders Worf to stop it. A security officer tries to drag it away, only to be hurled clean across the room. Worf then tries to stun it with his phaser, to no avail, and is forced to increase the phaser to full power. They successfully destroy it, but another one is beamed aboard in its place. Worf attempts to destroy it, but shields form around it, protecting it. It tampers with the same engineering console, before being beamed back to the cube. Picard holds a conference, in which Guinan further details what the Borg are, and how they destroyed her people. She advises them that the Borg do not negotiate with people, at which point the Borg hail the Enterprise. Picard tries to reason with them, but the Borg voice completely ignores him and simply informs the crew that they will not be able to defend themselves against the Borg ship, threatening to "punish" them if they attempt to do so. Troi then tells Picard that every Borg is part of the same mind, and that they have no distinct leader. The Borg then lock on to the Enterprise with a tractor beam that drains their shields and prevents them from moving. The Borg then use their cutting beam to slice a section out of the Enterprise hull, and all eighteen crewmembers in that section disappear. Picard orders Worf to use whatever force is necessary to sever the Borg's beam, and they are ultimately successful after three phaser attacks. Q shows up at another crew meeting, telling them that the Borg aren't concerned with the crew or the Federation, only the Enterprise and how they can use her technology. Picard begs Q to reveal that this is just another illusion, only for Q to respond that the situation is perfectly real before vanishing. The Enterprise sends over an away team consisting of Riker, Worf and Data in an attempt to learn more about the Borg. They discover the ship to be full of drones, most of whom are in stasis. The few active Borg pay no attention to the team. They find what they believe to be a Borg nursery, where there are babies in slots in the wall, but all with artificial, cybernetic implants. They then realize that the Borg seem to be using their combined mental powers to repair the ship, which is why the team has not been attacked. Picard orders them to be beamed back, and orders that they "get the hell out of here". They start leaving at warp 8, but the Borg follow with ease. They increase to maximum warp, but still have no success in escaping. Riker orders them to arm photon torpedoes, and Picard gives the order to fire, but the torpedoes have no effect. Q appears on the bridge and informs Picard he doesn't have a chance. The Borg ship, after getting within firing range, fires a shield-draining weapon twice and the Enterprise, now with very low shields, fires torpedos again, with the same result. The Borg fire twice more, and the Enterprise loses both shields and warp drive. Q once again goes on about how they haven't a clue what they were talking about when they said they were ready. Picard admits that they are indeed frightened, inadequate, and that they need Q's help. So Q, with a snap of his fingers, flings them back into Federation space. He congratulates Picard for admitting he needed help. Picard is still upset about the loss of the eighteen crewmembers, but Q is unapologetic, telling Picard that he needs to accept this is what the universe is really like before disappearing. The Enterprise sets a course for Starbase 83, and their adventure is over, though they recognize it may still have effects on the future that they could not predict. Guinan tells Picard that, now the Borg know about humanity, they will be coming, to which Picard states that this encounter may have been a good thing, remarking "Perhaps what we most needed was a kick in our complacency." Memorable Quotes "Interesting, isn't it? Not a ''he, not a she, not like anything you've ever seen. An enhanced humanoid." : - '''Q', describing a Borg drone to Picard "We have analysed your defensive capabilities as being unable to withstand us. If you defend yourselves, you will be punished." : - The Borg's first message to the Enterprise "If we all die here, now, you will not be able to gloat. You wanted to frighten us. We're frightened. You wanted to show us we were inadequate. For the moment, I grant that. You wanted me to say 'I need you.' I need you!" : - Picard to Q "If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires, both subtle and gross, but it's not for the timid." : - Q''' "Ah, the redoubtable Commander Riker... and Micro-Brain! Growl for me, let me know you still care." : - '''Q, greeting Riker and Worf as they enter Ten-Forward Background Information *The Borg make their first appearance in this episode, as does their cube-shaped vessel. * The Borg cube has a different appearance than the cubes used in Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Voyager, and the Borg drones seen here also have simplified clothing compared to later appearances in TNG and other series. * Guinan's office is seen for the first and only time. * The Borg were intially conceived of by Maurice Hurley as a race of insects (which originally appeared in the Season 1 episode "Conspiracy"), but were changed to the more budget-friendly cyborgs introduced here. * The episode, helmed by Rob Bowman, went over budget by more than $50,000, despite the aforementioned budget-saving measures. * While "Q Who?" features the first appearance of the Borg, their influence can be seen as early as the TNG Season 1 episode "The Neutral Zone" in which Federation and Romulan starbases along the Romulan Neutral Zone are mysteriously wiped out. This was intended to lead into a series of episodes that would have introduced the Borg as replacements for the Ferengi as TNG's villains. Unfortunately, the Writers Guild strike in 1988 prevented this as well as many concepts from coming to fruition in TNG's early days. * While it is not explicitly stated in this episode, the overall ambition of the Borg seems to be the acquisition of technology, not the assimilation of other species as in later episodes. While "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I", the next episode to feature the Borg, dealt with this changed premise by stating in dialogue that their objectives had changed, subsequent Borg episodes would ignore it entirely. :Q says the key word that explains everything: "scout." The first drone transported into Main Engineering was "a scout, the first of many." However, this contradicts Guinan's assertion that when the Borg "decide to come, they're going to come in force. They don't do anything piecemeal." The El-Aurians may believe this, but it's not necessarily the way the Borg have always acted. The cube in System J-25 was clearly an older model with older-style drones. Even the Borg alcoves and maturation chambers were less-evolved. This cube may have received the subspace message way earlier in the 24th century - when the Borg were more primitive and their objective was merely to identify useful technology - and been dispatched to track it down. * ENT: "Regeneration" and VOY: "Dark Frontier" indicate that not only was Earth Starfleet previously aware of the existence of the Borg, Federation scientists actually pursued them - even if they were considered mere rumor. While it is not impossible to imagine that humans might have been aware of the Borg prior to "Q Who?" (especially considering the events of 2293 (Star Trek Generations) and the time travel events of Star Trek: First Contact), it is nonetheless a strange continuity situation. :As the people of the United States learned after Sept. 11, 2001, governments often have foreknowledge of certain dangers, but fail to act to prevent them. Of course the Earth Starfleet knew about "cybernetic creatures" in the 22nd century, but they filed it away. The Federation Starfleet was again reminded of these creatures in the late 23rd century, after rescuing the El-Aurian refugees, but still did nothing. In the early 24th century, Magnus Hansen and Erin Hansen took matters into their own hands, but when they failed to return, Starfleet took no notice. "Q Who?" finally lit a fire under Starfleet because the Borg were finally coming, but alas, a mere year's worth of weapons development didn't prepare them for the first Borg incursion in 2366. * The Borg would go on to be considered the greatest villains of Star Trek: The Next Generation, however, they were featured in only six episodes throughout the seven year run. The creators have stated that this was due to the fact that the Borg were so powerful, it was not easy to come up with solutions for beating them. * This episode also featured the first of two appearances of Sonya Gomez, initially intended to be a comedic recurring character, but dropped after "Samaritan Snare". * The graphics displayed on monitors in the Borg alcoves were referred to as "Borg Spaghetti" by the production staff. * "Q Who?" was included in the 2006 DVD box set Star Trek: Fan Collective - Borg. * Katherine Pulaski does not appear in this episode. *Perhaps as an homage to TOS episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", after beaming Riker and the away team off of the Borg cube, Picard orders "Let's get the hell out of here!", just as Kirk did in the previously mentioned episode after their encounter with the Guardian of Forever. * The Borg collective voice heard in the episode was synthesised from the voices of writer Maurice Hurley, director Rob Bowman and Bowman's assistant. * Guinan's pose when first confronting Q is almost exactly the same as the one Whoopi Goldberg's character Celie uses when standing up to her abusive husband in the 1985 movie, The Color Purple. Links and References Guest Stars *John de Lancie as Q *Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien *Whoopi Goldberg as Guinan *Lycia Naff as Sonya Gomez Co-Starring *Guy Vardaman as Darien Wallace (uncredited) References 2365; beard; Borg; Borg alcove; Borg cube; Borg drone; Borg history; Borg nursery; cortical array; cutting beam; El-Aurian; ''Enterprise'' shuttlecraft 06; hot chocolate; J-25 system; maturation chamber; Romulan Neutral Zone; Sector 30; Sector 31; Starbase 83; Starbase 173; Starbase 185; tractor beam; transporter; Type-7 shuttlecraft Category:TNG episodes de:Zeitsprung mit Q es:Q Who fr:Q Who? nl:Q Who?